Waivers

Waivers allow you to waive controls and to dictate the running and/or reporting of those controls. A waiver file identifies:

1. which controls are waived
2. a description of why it is waived
3. (optionally) whether they should be skipped from running
4. (optionally) an expiration date for the waiver

Usage

Chef InSpec supports waiver files in YAML, JSON, or CSV file formats.

To use a waiver file, invoke inspec exec with --waiver-file [path]. For example:

inspec exec path/to/profile --waiver-file waivers.yaml

Parameters

Specify the following parameters in the waiver file:

control_id required

The ID of the control to be waived.

expiration_date optional

The expiration date of the waiver file in YYYY-MM-DD format. Waiver files expire at 00:00 at the local time of the system on the specified date. Waiver files without an expiration date are permanent.

run optional

If absent, true, or yes, the control will run and be reported, but failures in the control won’t make the overall run fail. If false or no, the control will not run. You may use any of yes, no, true, or false. To avoid confusion, you should explicitly specify whether the control should run or not.

justification required

A description of the waiver. This might include a reason for the waiver or the person who signed off on the waiver.

Examples

Example in YAML:

waiver_control_1_2_3:
  expiration_date: 2019-10-15
  justification: Not needed until Q3. @secteam

xccdf_org.cisecurity.benchmarks_rule_1.1.1.4_Ensure_mounting_of_hfs_filesystems_is_disabled:
  expiration_date: 2020-03-01
  justification: "This might be a bug in the test. @qateam"
  run: false

Example in JSON:

{
  "waiver_control_1_2_3": {
    "expiration_date": "2019-10-15T00:00:00.000Z",
    "justification": "Not needed until Q3. @secteam"
  },
  "xccdf_org.cisecurity.benchmarks_rule_1.1.1.4_Ensure_mounting_of_hfs_filesystems_is_disabled": {
    "expiration_date": "2020-03-01T00:00:00.000Z",
    "justification": "This might be a bug in the test. @qateam",
    "run": false
  }
}

Example in CSV: